XXX U.S Dollars Award for a 0:59 Any% Metroid Prime Speedrun

2006-11-05 12:20:47 am

l'appel du vide

Quote from AngerFist:

If my idea is so terrible then feel free to lock this stupid thread, but as I said, just trying to get some activity for a 0:59 run.

The idea is not terrible, nor the thread, stupid. Just...odd.

But take my word for what you will. I'm no speedrunner.

arkarian

2006-11-05 01:30:04 pm

red chamber dream

Quote from rascal:

Is sub 1 hour even possible, where do you think that 5 min can be picked up? Thats a whole lot of time in a 1 hour run.

It's possible. Theoretically, a :4X is possible, but the run would have to be absolutely perfect. sparky also seems to have confirmed that a :59 wouldn't be too terribly difficult to achieve for someone like him, and there are certainly others who could do it (Grenola). It's just a matter of getting each individual segment down to a certain time, just like most of the other WR runs. The five minutes comes from just general meticulousness: not accepting segments longer than a set amount of seconds and whatnot. There have also been a few new discoveries found since kip's run, all of which save a bit of time.

smilingjack13

2006-12-09 05:31:32 pm

I'm responding to this a little late, but the main reason I don't like this idea is the prize money isn't official... I assume many people would volunteer money and then refuse to pay it. Besides, anything less than $500 or $1000 wouldn't be all that significant.

Personally, I don't think putting that kind of effort into a MP speed run is worth it anymore, just because the online fanbase seems to be dying out with time. I got most of the way through a casual, but still entertaining, no varia speed run last spring, but finishing it hasn't been a priority. I probably won't.

UchihaSasuke

2006-12-09 06:19:32 pm

my umbrella goes directly to Bankai

a Wii with MP3 would be a more fitting prize i guess...

arkarian

2006-12-10 02:39:26 pm

red chamber dream

And encourage people to stop playing Prime and play more of Retro's nonsense??? Never!

nate

2006-12-10 04:02:14 pm

i like how so many people have already passed judgment on prime 3.

like they know anything about what the game is going to be like.

arkarian

2006-12-10 04:09:29 pm

red chamber dream

Or I could be, you know, making a joke.
I am thoroughly looking forward to Corruption.

StefanvanDijke

2006-12-19 07:37:55 pm

Count me out. The segments need to be so perfect I would go insane. And I don't want that to happen again ;)

arkarian

2006-12-19 09:39:07 pm

red chamber dream

Good to see you again, Stefan.

bartendorsparky

2006-12-22 10:42:22 pm

always move fast

to put things into perspective, i did a test run (only went up to the save before ridley though). atm, im 1:16.5 ahead of the 1:04, and with a 24 seconds improvement on ridley (perfectly feasible), id need a ~15 second improvement on prime i believe to get a 1:02, which is very easy with ice spreader.

http://bartendorsparky.diinoweb.com

you can get videos without the cutscenes, or with..

anyway, in a real run, the idrone fight would be ~15 seconds faster, the ghost fight would be 5-10, and the metroid prime segment i imagine could realistically probably be 40-45 better. that is another minute right there, resulting in a 1:01.

so in order to get a :59, you need to dock 2 minutes from my run other than the aforementioned parts. as you watch it, you'll likely notice lots and lots of mistakes, which is a good sign. the run isn't totally up-to-date, as there's plenty of annoying tricks i never did.

so let's see where we can go from here. what did i miss?

off the top of my head:

- in waste disposal, boost across the pit
- in life grove, lay a powerbomb before getting x-ray
- in geo core, ghetto from the stick to the door
- in monitor station, dash from the turret to the artifact door
- 3bj in hote
- second visit through m. station, boost off walkway -> to door
- in first segment, dash to the moniter to do dbj from

and im sure there's others..

to put things into perspective, i did a test run (only went up to the save before ridley though).  atm, im 1:16.5 ahead of the 1:04, and with a 24 seconds improvement on ridley (perfectly feasible), id need a ~15 second improvement on prime i believe to get a 1:02, which is very easy with ice spreader.

http://bartendorsparky.diinoweb.com

you can get videos without the cutscenes, or with..

anyway, in a real run, the idrone fight would be ~15 seconds faster, the ghost fight would be 5-10, and the metroid prime segment i imagine could realistically probably be 40-45 better.  that is another minute right there, resulting in a 1:01.

so in order to get a :59, you need to dock 2 minutes from my run other than the aforementioned parts.  as you watch it, you'll likely notice lots and lots of mistakes, which is a good sign.  the run isn't totally up-to-date, as there's plenty of annoying tricks i never did.

so let's see where we can go from here.  what did i miss?

off the top of my head:

- in waste disposal, boost across the pit
- in life grove, lay a powerbomb before getting x-ray
- in geo core, ghetto from the stick to the door
- in monitor station, dash from the turret to the artifact door
- 3bj in hote
- second visit through m. station, boost off walkway -> to door
- in first segment, dash to the moniter to do dbj from

and im sure there's others..

rekameohs

2006-12-22 11:08:39 pm

Anywhere, everywhere

...Wow.

Great job sparky! Even for just a test run, this is amazing! I'm starting to gain confidence in a sub hour run now. Keep up the good work guys! I guess I'll just be one of the chearleaders.... ;P

Lazylen

(user is banned)

2006-12-22 11:40:57 pm

well, then i guess there's a new record in the house, but i guess its not official or anything yet...

i'd try to do something if i could get the frigate segment down. :|

i hate the frigate. i make so many stupid mistakes (namely shooting the targets, my horrible parasite fight and knowing when to use mball and when to Ljump).

but i can do SJF with all speed in the world, along with a bunch of other tricks.

other things that would be holding me back are Great Tree Hall (the jump over the bars) and navigating the mines (though it just takes route planning for that).

plus, all boss fights are crappy for me.

my problem is that i accept too many small mistakes.

rekameohs

2006-12-23 01:56:54 pm

Anywhere, everywhere

Alright, deleted my other post so I could write this one. These are all of the mistakes I noticed in sparky’s run. Granted, most of them would only save a fraction of a second, but if we want to get sub hour, we must be perfectionists.

Segment 1:
Dash to the monitor to dbj off of

Segment 2:
Could speed up escape by about 1-2 seconds

Segment 3:
O_O flawless.

Segment 4:
Faster jump to the missile in Main Plaza?
Missed jump on the pillar in Main Plaza after Morph Ball.
Slight catch on the exit from Water Hall.
Faster Incinerator Drone fight.
Got stuck on the morph ball tunnel after the first generator in Energy Core.

Segment 5:
This might not be a speed trick at all, but it’s a little something I found. In Arboretum after you get over the gate and blow up the block, you can shoot a missile and a power beam shot to open the door and roll through instead of taking a while to unmorph, shoot the missile, and the power beam shot. My way, you could do the “running unmorph” so you would never lose speed.
Faster ghost fight.
Another thing I found: while falling down the shaft in Magmoor at the end, occasionally I’ve hit that one platform at the bottom right at an angle, and the morph ball shot across the ground fast. It’s been hard to replicate, and it would save 1 second at most, so it shouldn’t be something that you would try really hard to get perfect.

Segment 6:
Missed the door with first shot in Monitor Station.
Could have dashed straight to boost ball instead of hitting the rock.
Missed jumping on the chozo twice in Chapel of the Elders.
Had a slow time killing the last baby sheegoth in the wave beam battle.
Didn’t keep the door open with the morph ball bomb in the COTE morph ball tunnel.
In Monitor Station boost off walkway towards the door.
Hit a zoomer while boosting in the first Tallon Overworld elevator access room. (the name escapes me)
Messed up while boosting in the water of the Wavebuster room.
Didn’t boost straight into the tunnel in Ruined Shrine. (though I don’t know if that would even be humanly possible to pull off…)
Messed up while boosting in the room before Ruined Fountain (RF Access?)
Messed up the Furnace spider ball track glitch climb twice.
Could have killed the ghost slightly faster in Hall of the Elders.
Didn’t 3bj up HOTE.

Segment 7:
Boost through the end of waste disposal.
Messed up the scan on exiting the elite pirate’s room once.
Took a little bit examining what maze you were in at Central Dynamo, but that’s expected.

Segment 8:
Could have used the ghetto jump way to get to Plasma Processing from Geothermal Core.
Didn’t cross Twin Fires tunnel completely; got stuck in lava.
Hit that same zoomer in Tallon Overworld.
Didn’t dash straight to the door in the room with the bloodflower.

Segment 9:
Didn’t boost straight onto the x ray visor.
Didn’t lay a power bomb before getting the x ray visor.
Got a bad camera angle in Great Tree Hall and couldn’t see where you were going. (Bad luck there :/)
Got caught on a rock in the room before the elevator to Phazon Mines.
Refilling energy before the wave pirate fight probably cost about a second.
Missed a shot against the wave pirates and got hit, meaning you couldn’t shoot your beam for a second, costing time.
Missed a jump while climbing Ore Processing.
Is that method you used in segment 7 faster to climb the elite pirates room? (jumping on the pirate then to the fan)

Segment 10:
Messed up the scan in Metroid Quarantine B.
Got a metroid attached to you in while going towards the Artifact of Newborn in Metroid Quarantine B and Fungal Hall B.
(Thanks for using my missile expansion in Fungal Hall B idea ;D)
Missed a bomb while in the Phazon Mining Tunnel.
Got another metroid attached in Metroid Quarantine B.
Missed a jump while climbing Phazon Processing Center.

Segment 11:
Missed a jump in Research Lab Aether.
Didn’t boost straight into the elevator hologram leading to Control Tower.
I’ve been able to boost straight into the artifact of elder without unmorphing, but it’s all luck.
Had a bad camera angle after getting artifact of elder and had trouble getting to the elevator hologram.
Didn’t need to unmorph in the room after Frozen Pike.
Missed a jump in Phendrana’s Edge.
Caught caught on a beetle in the room before Frozen Pike and wasn’t able to boost into the tunnel, so you had to bomb up into it. Also wasn’t able to unmorph onto the ledge with the door. (is that possible?)

Segment 12:
Got stuck against a box in the room before Ruined Courtyard.
In Monitor Station, dash from the turret to the artifact door.
Got stuck against that same zoomer in Tallon Overworld (didn’t have much luck with him, did ya)

[/long post]

Alright, deleted my other post so I could write this one. These are all of the mistakes I noticed in sparky’s run. Granted, most of them would only save a fraction of a second, but if we want to get sub hour, we must be perfectionists.

[u][b]Segment 1:[/b][/u]
Dash to the monitor to dbj off of

[u][b]Segment 2:[/b][/u]
Could speed up escape by about 1-2 seconds

[u][b]Segment 3:[/b][/u]
O_O flawless.

[u][b]Segment 4:[/b][/u]
Faster jump to the missile in Main Plaza?
Missed jump on the pillar in Main Plaza after Morph Ball.
Slight catch on the exit from Water Hall.
Faster Incinerator Drone fight.
Got stuck on the morph ball tunnel after the first generator in Energy Core.

[u][b]Segment 5:[/b][/u]
This might not be a speed trick at all, but it’s a little something I found. In Arboretum after you get over the gate and blow up the block, you can shoot a missile and a power beam shot to open the door and roll through instead of taking a while to unmorph, shoot the missile, and the power beam shot. My way, you could do the “running unmorph” so you would never lose speed.
Faster ghost fight.
Another thing I found: while falling down the shaft in Magmoor at the end, occasionally I’ve hit that one platform at the bottom right at an angle, and the morph ball shot across the ground fast. It’s been hard to replicate, and it would save 1 second at most, so it shouldn’t be something that you would try really hard to get perfect.

[u][b]Segment 6:[/b][/u]
Missed the door with first shot in Monitor Station.
Could have dashed straight to boost ball instead of hitting the rock.
Missed jumping on the chozo twice in Chapel of the Elders.
Had a slow time killing the last baby sheegoth in the wave beam battle.
Didn’t keep the door open with the morph ball bomb in the COTE morph ball tunnel.
In Monitor Station boost off walkway towards the door.
Hit a zoomer while boosting in the first Tallon Overworld elevator access room. (the name escapes me)
Messed up while boosting in the water of the Wavebuster room.
Didn’t boost straight into the tunnel in Ruined Shrine. (though I don’t know if that would even be humanly possible to pull off…)
Messed up while boosting in the room before Ruined Fountain (RF Access?)
Messed up the Furnace spider ball track glitch climb twice.
Could have killed the ghost slightly faster in Hall of the Elders.
Didn’t 3bj up HOTE.

[u][b]Segment 7:[/b][/u]
Boost through the end of waste disposal.
Messed up the scan on exiting the elite pirate’s room once.
Took a little bit examining what maze you were in at Central Dynamo, but that’s expected.

[u][b]Segment 8:[/b][/u]
Could have used the ghetto jump way to get to Plasma Processing from Geothermal Core.
Didn’t cross Twin Fires tunnel completely; got stuck in lava.
Hit that same zoomer in Tallon Overworld.
Didn’t dash straight to the door in the room with the bloodflower.

[u][b]Segment 9:[/b][/u]
Didn’t boost straight onto the x ray visor.
Didn’t lay a power bomb before getting the x ray visor.
Got a bad camera angle in Great Tree Hall and couldn’t see where you were going. (Bad luck there :/)
Got caught on a rock in the room before the elevator to Phazon Mines.
Refilling energy before the wave pirate fight probably cost about a second.
Missed a shot against the wave pirates and got hit, meaning you couldn’t shoot your beam for a second, costing time.
Missed a jump while climbing Ore Processing.
Is that method you used in segment 7 faster to climb the elite pirates room? (jumping on the pirate then to the fan)

[u][b]Segment 10:[/b][/u]
Messed up the scan in Metroid Quarantine B.
Got a metroid attached to you in while going towards the Artifact of Newborn in Metroid Quarantine B and Fungal Hall B.
(Thanks for using my missile expansion in Fungal Hall B idea ;D)
Missed a bomb while in the Phazon Mining Tunnel.
Got another metroid attached in Metroid Quarantine B.
Missed a jump while climbing Phazon Processing Center.

[u][b]Segment 11:[/b][/u]
Missed a jump in Research Lab Aether.
Didn’t boost straight into the elevator hologram leading to Control Tower.
I’ve been able to boost straight into the artifact of elder without unmorphing, but it’s all luck.
Had a bad camera angle after getting artifact of elder and had trouble getting to the elevator hologram.
Didn’t need to unmorph in the room after Frozen Pike.
Missed a jump in Phendrana’s Edge.
Caught caught on a beetle in the room before Frozen Pike and wasn’t able to boost into the tunnel, so you had to bomb up into it. Also wasn’t able to unmorph onto the ledge with the door. (is that possible?)

[u][b]Segment 12:[/b][/u]
Got stuck against a box in the room before Ruined Courtyard.
In Monitor Station, dash from the turret to the artifact door.
Got stuck against that same zoomer in Tallon Overworld (didn’t have much luck with him, did ya)

[/long post]

bartendorsparky

2006-12-23 11:40:19 pm

always move fast

thanks for that list, it's very helpful. im on vacation for a few days now, but at some point i'll time everything and see where it stands. from there, who knows?

DJGrenola

2006-12-24 02:29:04 am

I'd like to say a couple of things.

Quote from rekameohs:

In Monitor Station boost off walkway towards the door.

sparky's probably going to laugh at me for mentioning this again, but I made a vid of something like this after sparky originally did that part ... not sure whether this is quite what you meant, but if done well (I botched it in the vid) it's >1 second faster than sparky's dashes. Even the messed up version you see there was ~0.8 seconds faster. I've always done the room that way - only problem is you tend to get hit by the turrets.

I'm also going to say something about the incinerator drone. Few of you have probably seen this piece of analysis I did a couple of years back, from which I (very unscientifically) guessed that the time taken to beat the incinerator drone might be

t = 52.5 + rand(5) + rand(10) + rand(10) + rand(10)

where rand(X) denotes a random number picked from the range 0 to X with flat probability density.

It becomes obvious straight away that getting a fight close to the lower limit of this formula (~53 seconds) would be very hard, because what you gain on one fast round is likely to be ruined by the remaining rounds. I spoke to sparky a little about ID while he was doing this run and decided to take this a little further and try to work out what the chances would be of achieving various times (provided this formula is correct). A talented statistician could do this analytically - unfortunately I suck so I just did what I always do - threw a CPU at the problem by modelling the above formula and running simulated "fights" several million times.

these are the results.

ali@bank:~/data/current/gaming/my_projects$ ./idrone
time 53 s, prob 0.000000, 1 in inf attempts
time 54 s, prob 0.000039, 1 in 25641.025391 attempts
time 55 s, prob 0.000313, 1 in 3194.888184 attempts
time 56 s, prob 0.001259, 1 in 794.281189 attempts
time 57 s, prob 0.003337, 1 in 299.670349 attempts
time 58 s, prob 0.007550, 1 in 132.450333 attempts
time 59 s, prob 0.014833, 1 in 67.417244 attempts
time 60 s, prob 0.025995, 1 in 38.468937 attempts
time 61 s, prob 0.042110, 1 in 23.747328 attempts
time 62 s, prob 0.064321, 1 in 15.547022 attempts
time 63 s, prob 0.094178, 1 in 10.618191 attempts
time 64 s, prob 0.131189, 1 in 7.622591 attempts
time 65 s, prob 0.175657, 1 in 5.692913 attempts
time 66 s, prob 0.229110, 1 in 4.364716 attempts
time 67 s, prob 0.290243, 1 in 3.445389 attempts
time 68 s, prob 0.357061, 1 in 2.800642 attempts
time 69 s, prob 0.427652, 1 in 2.338350 attempts
time 70 s, prob 0.499750, 1 in 2.001000 attempts
time 71 s, prob 0.572271, 1 in 1.747424 attempts
time 72 s, prob 0.644056, 1 in 1.552660 attempts
time 73 s, prob 0.710142, 1 in 1.408169 attempts
time 74 s, prob 0.770705, 1 in 1.297513 attempts
time 75 s, prob 0.823306, 1 in 1.214615 attempts
time 76 s, prob 0.870020, 1 in 1.149399 attempts
time 77 s, prob 0.906380, 1 in 1.103290 attempts
time 78 s, prob 0.935773, 1 in 1.068635 attempts
time 79 s, prob 0.957598, 1 in 1.044280 attempts
time 80 s, prob 0.973839, 1 in 1.026864 attempts
time 81 s, prob 0.985132, 1 in 1.015092 attempts
time 82 s, prob 0.992366, 1 in 1.007693 attempts
time 83 s, prob 0.996588, 1 in 1.003424 attempts
time 84 s, prob 0.998828, 1 in 1.001173 attempts
time 85 s, prob 0.999684, 1 in 1.000316 attempts
time 86 s, prob 0.999964, 1 in 1.000036 attempts
time 87 s, prob 0.999999, 1 in 1.000001 attempts

What does this mean ? It means that you'd expect a 54 second fight to occur once in ~26,000 attempts, a 55 second fight to occur once in ~3,200 attempts, a 56 second fight to occur once in ~800 attempts ... you get the picture, so the question is - just how long are you prepared to wait for an acceptable time ? Personally I'd think that you'd want to aim for 58 seconds as a reasonable upper limit, although to get just one fight this fast you would on average need to try over 100 times.

This is of course all dependent on my original analysis being correct. I believe it is simply because it seems consistent with how programmers' minds work, but obviously I cannot prove anything without disassembling retro's code, so take this with a pinch of salt.

Sparky's idrone was about 74 seconds, so his estimate of ~15 seconds saved seems reasonable ... that would be a 58 or a 59. There's definitely no excuse for taking anything over 60.

One other thing ... this analysis does not take into account the short time it would take actually to shoot the target, but we can probably assume that's negligible.

The software used to produce the above output is listed below, for anyone who would like to pick holes in it.

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

#define NUM_TRIES 1000000

int main(void) {
  unsigned int i;
  float j;
  unsigned int successes=0;

  srandom(time(NULL));
  long long lol;

  for (j=0.5;j<35.5;j++) {

    float k=j/10;
    successes=0;

    for (i=0;i<NUM_TRIES;i++) {
      lol=random()+random()+random()+(random()/2);
      if (lol<=((long long) ((float)RAND_MAX*k)))
        successes++;
    }
    printf ("time %i s, prob %f, 1 in %1f attempts\n", (int)(j+52.5), ((float)successes/(float)NUM_TRIES), ((float)NUM_TRIES/(float)successes));

  }

  return 0;
}

I'd like to say a couple of things.

[quote="rekameohs"]In Monitor Station boost off walkway towards the door.[/quote]

sparky's probably going to laugh at me for mentioning this again, but I made a [url=http://www.ali1548.ukshells.co.uk/vids/mstation.mp4]vid of something like this[/url] after sparky originally did that part ... not sure whether this is quite what you meant, but if done well (I botched it in the vid) it's >1 second faster than sparky's dashes. Even the messed up version you see there was ~0.8 seconds faster. I've always done the room that way - only problem is you tend to get hit by the turrets.

I'm also going to say something about the incinerator drone. Few of you have probably seen [url=http://www.ali1548.ukshells.co.uk/scu/drone_risetimes_res.jpg]this piece of analysis[/url] I did a couple of years back, from which I (very unscientifically) guessed that the time taken to beat the incinerator drone might be

t = 52.5 + rand(5) + rand(10) + rand(10) + rand(10)

where rand(X) denotes a random number picked from the range 0 to X with flat probability density.

It becomes obvious straight away that getting a fight close to the lower limit of this formula (~53 seconds) would be very hard, because what you gain on one fast round is likely to be ruined by the remaining rounds. I spoke to sparky a little about ID while he was doing this run and decided to take this a little further and try to work out what the chances would be of achieving various times (provided this formula is correct). A talented statistician could do this analytically - unfortunately I suck so I just did what I always do - threw a CPU at the problem by modelling the above formula and running simulated "fights" several million times.

these are the results.

ali@bank:~/data/current/gaming/my_projects$ ./idrone 
time 53 s, prob 0.000000, 1 in inf attempts
time 54 s, prob 0.000039, 1 in 25641.025391 attempts
time 55 s, prob 0.000313, 1 in 3194.888184 attempts
time 56 s, prob 0.001259, 1 in 794.281189 attempts
time 57 s, prob 0.003337, 1 in 299.670349 attempts
time 58 s, prob 0.007550, 1 in 132.450333 attempts
time 59 s, prob 0.014833, 1 in 67.417244 attempts
time 60 s, prob 0.025995, 1 in 38.468937 attempts
time 61 s, prob 0.042110, 1 in 23.747328 attempts
time 62 s, prob 0.064321, 1 in 15.547022 attempts
time 63 s, prob 0.094178, 1 in 10.618191 attempts
time 64 s, prob 0.131189, 1 in 7.622591 attempts
time 65 s, prob 0.175657, 1 in 5.692913 attempts
time 66 s, prob 0.229110, 1 in 4.364716 attempts
time 67 s, prob 0.290243, 1 in 3.445389 attempts
time 68 s, prob 0.357061, 1 in 2.800642 attempts
time 69 s, prob 0.427652, 1 in 2.338350 attempts
time 70 s, prob 0.499750, 1 in 2.001000 attempts
time 71 s, prob 0.572271, 1 in 1.747424 attempts
time 72 s, prob 0.644056, 1 in 1.552660 attempts
time 73 s, prob 0.710142, 1 in 1.408169 attempts
time 74 s, prob 0.770705, 1 in 1.297513 attempts
time 75 s, prob 0.823306, 1 in 1.214615 attempts
time 76 s, prob 0.870020, 1 in 1.149399 attempts
time 77 s, prob 0.906380, 1 in 1.103290 attempts
time 78 s, prob 0.935773, 1 in 1.068635 attempts
time 79 s, prob 0.957598, 1 in 1.044280 attempts
time 80 s, prob 0.973839, 1 in 1.026864 attempts
time 81 s, prob 0.985132, 1 in 1.015092 attempts
time 82 s, prob 0.992366, 1 in 1.007693 attempts
time 83 s, prob 0.996588, 1 in 1.003424 attempts
time 84 s, prob 0.998828, 1 in 1.001173 attempts
time 85 s, prob 0.999684, 1 in 1.000316 attempts
time 86 s, prob 0.999964, 1 in 1.000036 attempts
time 87 s, prob 0.999999, 1 in 1.000001 attempts

What does this mean ? It means that you'd expect a 54 second fight to occur once in ~26,000 attempts, a 55 second fight to occur once in ~3,200 attempts, a 56 second fight to occur once in ~800 attempts ... you get the picture, so the question is - just how long are you prepared to wait for an acceptable time ? Personally I'd think that you'd want to aim for 58 seconds as a reasonable upper limit, although to get just one fight this fast you would on average need to try over 100 times.

This is of course all dependent on my original analysis being correct. I believe it is simply because it seems consistent with how programmers' minds work, but obviously I cannot prove anything without disassembling retro's code, so take this with a pinch of salt.

Sparky's idrone was about 74 seconds, so his estimate of ~15 seconds saved seems reasonable ... that would be a 58 or a 59. There's definitely no excuse for taking anything over 60.

One other thing ... this analysis does not take into account the short time it would take actually to shoot the target, but we can probably assume that's negligible.

The software used to produce the above output is listed below, for anyone who would like to pick holes in it.

[code]
#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

#define NUM_TRIES 1000000

int main(void) {
  unsigned int i;
  float j;
  unsigned int successes=0;

srandom(time(NULL));
  long long lol;

for (j=0.5;j<35.5;j++) {

float k=j/10;
    successes=0;

for (i=0;i<NUM_TRIES;i++) {
      lol=random()+random()+random()+(random()/2);
      if (lol<=((long long) ((float)RAND_MAX*k)))
        successes++;
    }
    printf ("time %i s, prob %f, 1 in %1f attempts\n", (int)(j+52.5), ((float)successes/(float)NUM_TRIES), ((float)NUM_TRIES/(float)successes));

}

return 0;
}
[/code]

Sigfriedxx

2006-12-26 10:30:37 am

Absolutley AMAZING RUN!!!!

there were pleanty of mistakes however, but you still managed an AMAZING time. what I loved best was how you editied out EACH cutscene for us, that helped time flyby!

good work! I can't wait to see the final improved run!

AJAX

2006-12-26 06:50:53 pm

“Well done is better than well said”

Does anybody know what quicktime component I'm missing? I really want to see bartendorsparky's new run but it takes me to a quicktime page for 3rd party codecs and such. There 's a list of like 10 different ones. I don't know which one to download. I can play all the videos for Prime 1 but get the same thing for most Prime 2 videos. I do have the latest DivX and quicktime versions (the free versions that is).

nate

2006-12-28 06:10:04 pm

try vlc. the fourcc on his vids is probably wrong.

jason.derf

2007-01-03 09:46:17 pm

wow..... that's pretty good

Skull64

2017-05-26 07:47:46 pm

Time to pay up

DJGrenola

2017-05-31 11:19:42 am

hahah <3